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CNN Sunday Morning

Interview With Steve Kurkjian

Aired December 15, 2002 - 07:32   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CHARLES MOLINEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Cardinal Bernard Law returned to the United States yesterday after his visit to the Vatican. He came back without the title of Archbishop of Boston, a post he has held for 18 years. This was actually the headline in "The Boston Globe" the other day. He resigned.
Joining us now for more on the implications of Cardinal Law's resignation is a reporter who's been front and center for this story for a lot of it, Steve Kurkjian from "The Boston Globe."

Steve, thanks for being with us. This one just keeps on unraveling. The question is what happens now? We've got lawsuits still pending. And in fact, Law's supposed to deliver a deposition on Tuesday. Where do we go from here?

STEVE KURKJIAN, BOSTON GLOBE: Well, that deposition has been postponed at the okay of the lawyers involved. They thought as humanitarian gesture, take a little bit of the heat off of the man that they would postpone it until January.

But you're right, the dispute between the attorneys for the victims and the more than 500 victims now in the archdiocese as to what is fair compensation from the harm that these people have suffered over the years continues.

MOLINEAUX: What about the prospect also for the church in Boston, the archdiocese, declaring bankruptcy? Does this change that possibility?

KURKJIAN: Well, the talks are going on. There is a mediator who is talking to both sides, to try to resolve their differences, and come up with a fair amount. The number has been placed at above $100 million that will, as a fund, that would settle these. As a global settlement amount, but the archdiocese has nowhere near that amount of money and doesn't have the insurance money either.

The insurance companies have been balking at paying their -- the amounts that they should be paying. And as a result, if they're not going to -- if they're going to stay outside those talks, bankruptcy might be still on the table.

MOLINEAUX: Steve, back to Law, how much of his behavior over the past year has played into this? It has been said that he behaved exactly the way your lawyer would want you to behave if you're a defendant defending yourself in a lawsuit in front of a jury, but not necessarily the way a spiritual leader should be speaking in front of the faithful.

How big of a part of this equation is that?

KURKJIAN: Well, I don't think the cardinals handling it over the past year really was the cause of his stepping down from archbishop. What really spelled his fate was in those documents that had been -- that he had -- was -- it showed his involvement in this scandal since he came to Boston in 1984. The mishandling of these cases that had been passed by him, and that he had approved since 1984...

MOLINEAUX: So once...

KURKJIAN: ...showed that he -- go ahead.

MOLINEAUX: ...this scandal blew up, was there anything that Law could have done differently to have spared himself, the church, and the victims, a lot of this pain?

KURKJIAN: I think he could have. I think early on, he could have exposed the -- come to the cameras and not just apologized, which he did several times, numerous times, but exposed the system that allowed these cases to get hidden for so many years. However, he would have been bucking Vatican policy. This is not a problem that took place just in Boston. Every other diocese in archdiocese in this country, this handling was similar.

MOLINEAUX: Law has been a big advocate on a variety of issues: affordable housing, abortions, relations with Jews, relations with Hispanics, the death penalty. And now there's just this. Does that all go away? Is there anything left of a legacy for him?

KURKJIAN: Yes, I think there will be a legacy. And I think that's a measure of the good work that he has done as archbishop. This man started his career in Mississippi as an extraordinary civil rights advocate. And I don't think that that -- that those important parts of his history will be forgotten, but it'll take time. It'll take a fair and equitable resolution of the crisis that we're in right now to look back on the stronger points of his career.

MOLINEAUX: Thank you very much, Steve Kurkjian, with "The Boston Globe." Good to have you with us this morning.

KURKJIAN: Thank you. Appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired December 15, 2002 - 07:32   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CHARLES MOLINEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Cardinal Bernard Law returned to the United States yesterday after his visit to the Vatican. He came back without the title of Archbishop of Boston, a post he has held for 18 years. This was actually the headline in "The Boston Globe" the other day. He resigned.
Joining us now for more on the implications of Cardinal Law's resignation is a reporter who's been front and center for this story for a lot of it, Steve Kurkjian from "The Boston Globe."

Steve, thanks for being with us. This one just keeps on unraveling. The question is what happens now? We've got lawsuits still pending. And in fact, Law's supposed to deliver a deposition on Tuesday. Where do we go from here?

STEVE KURKJIAN, BOSTON GLOBE: Well, that deposition has been postponed at the okay of the lawyers involved. They thought as humanitarian gesture, take a little bit of the heat off of the man that they would postpone it until January.

But you're right, the dispute between the attorneys for the victims and the more than 500 victims now in the archdiocese as to what is fair compensation from the harm that these people have suffered over the years continues.

MOLINEAUX: What about the prospect also for the church in Boston, the archdiocese, declaring bankruptcy? Does this change that possibility?

KURKJIAN: Well, the talks are going on. There is a mediator who is talking to both sides, to try to resolve their differences, and come up with a fair amount. The number has been placed at above $100 million that will, as a fund, that would settle these. As a global settlement amount, but the archdiocese has nowhere near that amount of money and doesn't have the insurance money either.

The insurance companies have been balking at paying their -- the amounts that they should be paying. And as a result, if they're not going to -- if they're going to stay outside those talks, bankruptcy might be still on the table.

MOLINEAUX: Steve, back to Law, how much of his behavior over the past year has played into this? It has been said that he behaved exactly the way your lawyer would want you to behave if you're a defendant defending yourself in a lawsuit in front of a jury, but not necessarily the way a spiritual leader should be speaking in front of the faithful.

How big of a part of this equation is that?

KURKJIAN: Well, I don't think the cardinals handling it over the past year really was the cause of his stepping down from archbishop. What really spelled his fate was in those documents that had been -- that he had -- was -- it showed his involvement in this scandal since he came to Boston in 1984. The mishandling of these cases that had been passed by him, and that he had approved since 1984...

MOLINEAUX: So once...

KURKJIAN: ...showed that he -- go ahead.

MOLINEAUX: ...this scandal blew up, was there anything that Law could have done differently to have spared himself, the church, and the victims, a lot of this pain?

KURKJIAN: I think he could have. I think early on, he could have exposed the -- come to the cameras and not just apologized, which he did several times, numerous times, but exposed the system that allowed these cases to get hidden for so many years. However, he would have been bucking Vatican policy. This is not a problem that took place just in Boston. Every other diocese in archdiocese in this country, this handling was similar.

MOLINEAUX: Law has been a big advocate on a variety of issues: affordable housing, abortions, relations with Jews, relations with Hispanics, the death penalty. And now there's just this. Does that all go away? Is there anything left of a legacy for him?

KURKJIAN: Yes, I think there will be a legacy. And I think that's a measure of the good work that he has done as archbishop. This man started his career in Mississippi as an extraordinary civil rights advocate. And I don't think that that -- that those important parts of his history will be forgotten, but it'll take time. It'll take a fair and equitable resolution of the crisis that we're in right now to look back on the stronger points of his career.

MOLINEAUX: Thank you very much, Steve Kurkjian, with "The Boston Globe." Good to have you with us this morning.

KURKJIAN: Thank you. Appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com